According to Google, “…we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.”

Google will continue to use other factors in ranking search results, so high quality content pages which are not mobile-friendly, could still get a high ranking. Rankings are page-level, and mobile-friendly pages on a site will get higher rankings than non-mobile-friendly pages.

The rollout begins on April 21st, and will take approximately one week for all sites to be indexed by Google. Every time a website is crawled and indexed, Google will determine its mobile-friendliness. Pages can be tested using this mobile-friendly testing tool from Google.

You want your website visitor’s to know your site is current and active, but a footer with a date that is a year or older will give the impression your site and its content are out of date. If your website does not include functionality to automatically change this information, we have the answer – a plugin named UpdateYourFooter.com, which can update your website footer quickly and easily.

Choose whichever snippet of code suits your purpose. You can update the year, choose a date range, and even provide additional information, such as your company name.

Use Powerful Images
We’ve all heard a picture is worth a thousand words, and this is equally true for web design. People spend more time and give more clicks on sites with strong visual imagery. The right photo, chart or infographic can tell a story as well as any words. Just make sure you don’t overload your site with bandwidth intensive graphics which impede the user experience. Instead, pick one or two relevant images that convey your message and connect with your customers.

Employ Responsive Design
This is a must! Responsive web design adapts automatically to the user’s viewing environment, whether it be a desktop, laptop, phone or tablet. Responsive design gives the same user experience regardless of how or where the information is viewed. By using a “begin with the end in mind” approach (a good philosophy for any endeavor in life, not just web design!), you first design your website for mobile access – tablets and phones – and then work your way to a laptop and desktop. This is especially important if mobile devices are how your customers most often get online.

Flatten Your Design
Microsoft, Google and Apple all do it, so why don’t you? We’re talking about flat web design. Shiny buttons and drop shadows which were once all the rage are now outdated. A simple, classic esthetic is what flat design is all about. The user experience is the focus, not flashy buttons and network rich images. Simplicity does not mean boring. Blocks of color can be used to great effect, text should be clear and obvious with links and buttons easy to find and click. Flat design works well as a responsive design and looks good across all platforms.

Include White Space
In the visual arts world white space is known as negative space, the area on a page left blank and free of text and images. White space gives our eyes a place to pause and rest, much needed in today’s over stimulated world. Sometimes less is more, and for the end user a site with less stimulation can draw their attention quicker than a site over-packed with graphics, photos, charts, videos, maps, buttons, links and text.

Interact With Your Visitors
Static, passive web pages may be good at presenting data, but do they engage your website’s visitors? Interactive elements serve a dual purpose – they give your visitors something to do on the website, while allowing you to collect data that can help improve and increase your business. Interactive elements can be as simple as requesting an email address in exchange for a reward (an ebook, video, coupon), to answering a poll to providing feedback, ratings and reviews. If you want to know what your customers want and need, give them a way to tell you. One caveat – don’t let interactivity impede the overall user experience. The last thing you want to do is turn off a customer because of a cumbersome process. Allow interactivity, but do not force it on your visitors.

With a few simple changes, you can create a new look and feel for your website and provide additional value to your customers.

For ecommerce retailers this is also shaping up to be the most profitable time of year. According to digital analytics company comScore, Cyber Monday online sales surpassed $2.038 billion, posting a 17% increase from last year.

Here are a few areas where you can supercharge your ecommerce holiday sales.

Your Customers
Today’s shopper is more than a demographic. To better understand your customer, you need to know their shopping habits

Your Products
How do your customers identify your products? Make sure the products in your online store are tagged with the relevant words to match buyer’s search terms. If people are searching for sweaters, you don’t want your products tagged only as cardigans.

Your Offers
The buying process should be easy, seamless and provide incentives to your customers.

Focus on building relationships with your ecommerce customers, and they will buy from you well beyond the holiday season.

Part of what has changed the game and fueled the explosive growth for small and medium sized online businesses is the reduction to the cost of entry into the online world. Within the past ten years, automated processes and plug and play online payment systems have brought the price to create an online presence from $100,000 and months of development time to minimal expense and a few hours. Small and medium sized ecommerce businesses are showing significant growth and at $100 million, their annual revenues will soon top those of Amazon and eBay.

What all of this means is that the small and medium sized players are poised to take business from the giants in the online game. Small and medium businesses account for 21.5% of the U.S. retail commerce market. The lack of barriers to entry allow anyone to compete, and in 2015 there is an expected 25-30% growth in this segment. Many of the big players are still using legacy systems, giving small and medium businesses the opportunity to disrupt the marketplace. If there was ever a time to jump into the ecommerce world, it is now!

With that in mind, here are some current design trends and their impact on your SEO.

Parallax is a single scrolling page web design that has become increase popular in recent years.  The pros are the improved visual interface and less clicking and navigating as all content is on a single page.  The cons are graphic rich designs which can be slow to load and users may get lost with all the scrolling.  There is also a negative effect on SEO, as all the content is on one page and does not allow for links to multiple URLs.

Responsive design sites are built to allow visitors to have the same user experience regardless of which device they use to connect.  As today’s users could be looking at your site on their phone in the morning, laptop midday and tablet in the evening, you want to have a site that easily works regardless of how someone connects.   Separate sites for different devices may trigger a message to user’s that the site is not designed for their mobile device and consistently updating duplicate content could be problematic.  A single site for all content is a definite advantage when it comes to SEO.  

Fixed navigation makes it easy from a user perspective, as they can easily click to navigate back to any part of the website.  There is no real drawback from an SEO perspective, but fixed navigation may have issues with some mobile devices.  On the other end of the spectrum is off-screen navigation which uses a symbol (three horizontal lines) to represent the navigation menu. Again, there is no negative SEO consequences, but if users don’t know this is how to access the navigation menu, they may get frustrated and move on to another site.  

Keeping your customers in mind when designing a site and creating the user experience is where you should focus your efforts.  Within this framework, you can then figure out how to best implement SEO, along with the other elements that create online success, such as social media, marketing and good old fashion client engagement.

Video engages online shoppers and has a direct influence on buying decisions. But don’t just take our word for it – the facts speak for themselves:

• People who watch videos are almost twice as likely to make a purchase
• Two-thirds of video watchers see at least 80% of the video
• One-third of videos are viewed on mobile devices, with mobile device viewing 24% higher than desktop viewing

When it comes to videos and their effectiveness, 78% were rated 4 or 5 stars, meaning they are effective and add value to the online shopping experience.

Businesses have taken note of the positive impact of videos, with 75% of retailers and manufacturers expecting to increase their video budget over the next few years.

Anyone who is serious about creating an online presence and generating sales must include video as part of the overall web experience. Video is now a proven way to engage your customers and increase revenue.

The good news for retailers using the Magento ecommerce platform, is the growth of SMS enabling applications.

FireText is a free extension which gives merchants the ability to send text messages throughout the order fulfillment process, along with allowing personalized messages.

SMS PRO lets online e-commerce sites send texts based on certain events which triggers messages, through the Nexmo SMS gateway.

SMS Manager notifies customers when orders ships and allows them to track shipping progress. Administrators can also be updated with new orders and the application can be configured with customized messages.

Mage SMS provides multilingual and multi-store support. Text messages can be sent based on various events set by the administrator, with advanced filtering options available as well.

Clockwork SMS sends messages when customers place an order, an order is shipped or if an order is delayed.

With a wide range of SMS applications available, there is no reason to not include this tool as part of your customer interaction experience.

Who does this affect?

The Justice Department has proposed rules that all government websites, down to the state and local level, must be ADA compliant. As the Act also applies to public accommodations, the Department of Justice is expected to rule in the future that public websites also fall under “public accommodations” and therefore are required to be ADA compliant.

The ADA applies to businesses with fifteen or more employees, yet designing and developing websites that are ADA compliant is good business regardless of company size. Some courts have been ruling in favor of requiring websites to be ADA compliant, as in the cases against Target and Netflix (the Netflix case was the first ADA ruling that applies to internet-only based businesses).

Websites without assistive technology can be as much of a barrier to access as buildings which are not ADA compliant. By creating websites that are accessible to those with disabilities, businesses have the potential to tap into an entirely new customer base and gain new business, while limiting liability. Plus, fairness and equality in and of itself a good thing. Now is the time to get ahead of the game and add ADA compliance to your web design tool belt.

Until the rules for ADA compliance are finalized, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued recommendations for website accessibility: http://webaim.org/standards/508/checklist.

Website Not Aligned with Target Audience

Every business should know their target audience, and if you think your target audience is “everyone”, you are not targeting anyone. Who wants, needs and is willing to buy your product or service? Only when you understand your customer and how they make their buying decisions, can you effectively build a website that will align with your audience and convert browsers to buyers.

Overly Complex Websites

Once you know your customers, you should be designing a website with them in mind. What kind of information are they looking for, and in what form? Do they want text, video, audio, animation or all of the above? When designing a website, especially for new businesses where you are learning about your customers, less is more. Start with the basics, knowing you can always add features in the future.

SEO and Keyword Focus

While it is true that a well designed website should incorporate SEO, many entrepreneurs start with SEO and create content loaded with keywords, but providing no real value to the site’s visitors. Focus on creating the content your customers want and need, and remember, if you are too keyword rich, you may be penalized by the search engines.

Contact Information is Hard to Find

When your customer is ready to interact with you or has a question, they do not want to spend time searching your website for contact information. Customers with short attention spans will go to another site if they find yours is too troublesome. Make your contact information, including phone number, email and physical address, easily and readily available.

Good Looks, Difficult Navigation

Another common startup website mistake is to develop an visually pleasing site, which is difficult to navigate. A well designed website should look good but also be easy to get around. Breadcrumb navigation allows users to see where they are and can easily backtrack when needed. You want a site that both looks good and is simple to use.

Lack of Social Proof

The common adage today is that people do business with someone they know, like and trust. But how do you develop trust when you are a new company? One way is through testimonials, or social proof. When someone sees that people have already done business with you and have had a good result, it helps them make a buying decision. Include written testimonials, or even better – pull out your smart phone the next time someone compliments your business and get it on video, which you can then upload to your website.

Non Responsive Designs

Is your customer browsing your website on a computer, laptop, smart phone or tablet? These days, chances are the answer is all of the above. They may be looking on a laptop in the morning, smart phone during lunch and tablet in the evening when laying in bed. Will they have the same website experience regardless of device? If not, you need to consider updating your site so it is fully responsive and looks the same on all devices.

For any entrepreneur, there are some hard and fast rules to follow. Understand your audience, design and develop a product or service that meets a need and show through your actions that you are someone people can know, like and trust. Applying these same rules to your website will go a long way in helping connect with your clients, and grow your business.